In other news, I actually slept last night. I probably fell asleep sometime around 1 AM (at least, I think that’s when I went to bed); all I really know is that I fell asleep quickly. This is all good, right? Now for the bad: I was so happy to be asleep when my alarm went off that I hit the snooze button. And continued to do so for a couple of hours. And eventually must have accidentally turned my alarm off at which point I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 2 PM.

(Is it weird that I’m not sure if I had that Bad Books song in my head before I decided to name this post that or not?)

Why yes, yes I did spend a third consecutive night not ever sleeping. How could you tell?

At 3:30 this morning I was thinking that if I’m only ever going to feel awake in the middle of the night then I should take advantage of that and do stuff in the middle of the night. But not then. Oh no. Then I was content to stay in bed mostly watching but sometimes only listening to The O.C. But I swear to God if I’m still awake four hours from now I will get up and do something productive.

I’m feeling slightly bullish about my chances of actually sleeping tonight, though. I only took one nap today and it was only two hours long and it was in the morning. And I really needed that nap, too (and not just because sleep is important); I finally watched the last three Doctor Who episodes and they left me emotionally drained. And sleepy. Very, very sleepy.

I’m not entirely sure how I spent my time today when I wasn’t watching Doctor Who or the Phillies game (a win! holy crap!), but I am hopeful that I will be asleep an hour from now.

For the second day in a row I got out of bed at 5 AM because I was wide awake due to not having slept at all. I spent the only two productive hours of my day (from 5 to 7) cleaning my inboxes and listening to (vinyl) records. I was so exhausted after those strenuous two hours that I spent the rest of the day on my couch.

The only real difference between yesterday and today is that instead of taking one ill-advised nap I took two. The first one started at 9-something in the morning. I took a nap at 9-something in the morning! Granted, I’d been out of bed for four hours (and awake since my last nap ended at 11 PM), but it just feels so wrong to take a three-hour nap at 9 AM. At least my second nap (which ended at 9 PM) was only an hour long.

This is not a good pattern, but I don’t see it ending any time soon. Awesome.

I’m pretty sure I was most energetic at 5 AM, which is when I decided I was tired of tossing and turning and listening to The O.C. and so I got out of bed, made some coffee, and read some stuff on th’ Interwebz. It’s been all downhill from there.

Early in the Phillies game (I know it was early because they had a lead) I wanted nothing more than to take a nap, but I knew that I shouldn’t. I did, however, decide to stretch out on the couch, which was a bad idea in retrospect. When we were all put out of our misery the Phillies game ended I decided to turn on the Dodgers game because Vin Scully. But then I fell asleep at some point during the game. And I didn’t wake up until just before 11.

Shit.

Sure, it was only a couple of hours, but that nap is going to bite me in the ass. Plus, it was one of those naps when you wake up and you’re just completely disoriented; I hate those naps. My first coherent thought when I woke up was to wonder who won the Dodgers game. So I looked and it turns out that I missed a Yasiel Puig walk-off bomb. Bummer.

I noticed some water damage in my house several weeks ago, which sucks. Luckily, my house is still under warranty. So I called the builder and they had one of their customer service reps call me to schedule a time for him to come check it out. I was literally packing my bags to go to my parents’ when he called, so I told him I wasn’t available until the next Friday, 7/19. We made plans for him to come on 7/19 “after lunch” (his words).

Well, for some reason that defies my understanding, he came to my house on Wednesday and was shocked to discover that I wasn’t there two days before I’d said I was available. He left one of those “sorry I missed you” hanger things on my door and left an indecipherable message on my voicemail. (I ignored the voicemail because I literally could not understand a word of it.)

I left my parents’ house on Friday morning and got home around 11-ish. Normally I’d check my front porch for packages after being gone for a week but I knew I’d be opening my door at some point in the afternoon so I figured it could wait. At 2-ish I decided to check my mail so I opened my front door and found the thing hanging on the doorknob. I was so mad that this asshat showed up two days ahead of schedule and had the audacity to leave something on my door as if I’d fucked up the meeting time that I was shaking. But I calmed myself down as I walked to the mailboxes and called the number on the door thingy (which was the number that had left the indecipherable voicemail).

So the dude tells me that he had been to my house at 12:45 that afternoon but he saw the thing was still hanging on the door and he assumed that I was on vacation and he just turned around and left without even ringing the damn doorbell. Meanwhile, I was in my goddamn living room listening to podcasts waiting for him to show up. I explained that I had been on vacation (which is sorta true) but I’d gotten home at 11 that morning and I just hadn’t opened my front door until 2. (I have a garage; I almost never use my front door.) He apologized (but not nearly enough to satisfy me) and asked when we could reschedule. I had no interest in making his life easy, so I told him I wasn’t available again until the next Friday. (Honestly, he’s lucky I didn’t demand someone less stupid to deal with and tell him to go fuck himself.)

He actually showed up on the proper day this time. (He was a little late, but I decided not to bring it up because if he can’t figure out a calendar then I really shouldn’t expect him to understand clocks.) And now some contractor is supposed to call me on Monday. I can’t wait.

So, yeah, this is the rant that’s been bouncing around in my head for a week. Why does shit like this happen to me? Why do I get stuck with the “customer service” rep who decides to show up two days early for an appointment? It’s called an appointment because you’re supposed to show up at the appointed time; you don’t get bonus points for showing up early. In fact, if you show up too early for an appointment you look like a giant inconsiderate asshole.

Is he really hurt? Is he being traded? Waaa! Why do I let baseball trade season stress me out? It’s not like I don’t have a billion things that actually affect me that are stressing me out. For example, this week was pretty shitty even before there was upsetting (and ominous?) Cliff Lee news. So with that in mind today’s list is full of things that make me smile.

I’ve never understood the whole Christmas in July thing. Why not Christmas in June? I mean, June 25th and December 25th are equidistant; Christmas in June would make more sense to me.

The actual point of this post, however, is this: I’m going home; I’m going home for Christmas. (Sung to the tune of this Blink-182 song, which has been in my head for a week.)

I’m pretty fucking excited about this, you guys!

And it’s not just a trip home (even though that would be more than enough); it’s a trip to New York City as well! My parents are spending the two weeks before Christmas in NYC and I am joining them on 12/20. The three of us are then taking the train to Philly on 12/23 and will spend the rest of the week crashing at my brother and sister-in-law’s. The only downside to the plan is that I won’t have access to a car while in Jersey, but I’ll be able to deal with that.

I can’t wait to spend Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family. (I’m so excited that it’s sure to be a crushing disappointment, but whatever.) I can’t wait to spend a few days in New York again. I’m just really, very excited! And I only have to wait five months.